Smarter Than C-3PO: Future Robots Will Work in Teams, Scientist Says

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In the next few decades, teams of roving robots will take to the
seas, the air and other hard-to-reach spots, communicating with
one another and working to solve scientific problems, according
to a Canadian scientist.

Such flotillas of
smart machines could peer at coral reefs from underwater and
in the air, or perhaps explore terrain that is difficult for
humans to reach, said Gregory Dudek, research director of McGill
University's mobile robotics laboratory in Montreal.

First, however, researchers will need to make sure the robots do not
overwhelm the waiting humans with data. These robots should parse
much of the information themselves and communicate the most
interesting results to humans, sort of like a highlight reel from
a sports game.

"It's getting a robot to go in some environment — on the surface,
under the water, on the moon, wherever — and getting it to tell
me what it sees," Dudek told the Canadian Science Writers'
Association June 7 during its annual meeting.

One example, he said, could be
an underwater robot that sends back the locations and types
of coral that it views.

'This perception of C-3PO'

Last year, Dudek took on a new responsibility: leading the new
NSERC
Canadian Field Robotics Network. With the federal government
and industry partners providing 5 million Canadian dollars ($4.91
million) in matching contributions, robotics scientists across
Canada will work together on projects to advance research in the
field.

This work will culminate in an annual field test, in which robots
will rove together underwater or on land, for applications
ranging from monitoring oil pipelines to making real-time iceberg
warnings.

At the conference, Dudek showed a video of a robot that could
adjust to walking from the beach to swimming in the nearby water.
He said advances in the field are making these machines smarter
and faster. For instance, robots can perform multiple functions
at the same time: walking, analyzing and sending back
information.

The public, however, "has this perception of C-3PO" from "Star
Wars" when talking about robotics, so it is difficult to convey
how exciting this really is to researchers, Dudek said.

Networks of robots will need to balance how often they will meet
and how often they'll work, he added. Regular contact will be
essential to ensuring one robot isn't doing all of the
assignments. For example, if two machines are exploring the city
of Montreal, and one were to stumble into a dead end, resources
should be reallocated, Dudek said.

Meeting, however, could involve long-distance technologies — the
same ones as humans often use. Depending on the terrain, the
robots could communicate using short-range radio, Bluetooth or
even light beams. But talking shouldn't happen all the time,
Dudek added.

"If we say, 'Let's meet very often,' it's not efficient, and you
spend all your time in meetings," he said.